What We Want: Call of Duty Movie

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If the box office is going to be swept up by Modern Warfare, this is what needs to make the cut.

By Phil Pirrello & Jesse Schedeen

After everything we've had to suffer through in the past few decades, announcements of new videogame movies are not something we tend to get excited about. There is, however, one exception that has caught our eye recently. As we reported on Monday, Activision has just filed a trademark that indicates a Call of Duty movie might be in the works. This is hardly confirmation, but already our minds are abuzz with the thought of an epic Call of Duty adventure unfolding on the big screen.

While we await further news from Activision, we've decided to go ahead an imagine our own Call of Duty adaptation. In "What We Want: Call of Duty Movie," we explore the elements of the series that should make the transition to film. First and foremost, we want an adaptation of the Modern Warfare games. Hollywood doesn't need another WWII epic any more than videogame consoles do.

Read through our pitch and let us know your thoughts on a possible Call of Duty feature film by posting in the comments section below. If any gaming franchise can work in Hollywood, we'd like to believe it's this one.

History of COD

Call of Duty was hardly the first FPS game to depict the carnage and chaos of real world war, but gamers certainly sat up and took notice when it debuted. The original Call of Duty hit the PC in 2003, offering up a frantic and action-packed account of many iconic WWII battles on multiple fronts. The game was followed up by an expansion and several spinoff titles on home consoles. When Call of Duty 2 debuted on both the Xbox 360 and PC in 2005, the series became a true phenomenon on consoles. Call of Duty 3 followed the next year, still continuing the WWII theme.

The next major shift came with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. As the title suggests, the setting had finally moved from WWII to the less well-trodden conflicts of the modern day. Nazis were replaced by Russian militants and terrorists. Call of Duty now alternates between these two time periods. Call of Duty: World at War returned to WWII, while the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 continues the conflict begun in COD 4. The franchise is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down, and many believe the newest entry in the series stands a good chance of breaking sales records this winter.

Storyline

Our Call of Duty movie, like most films, loosely adapts the overall storyline of the games while being loyal to scene and gameplay specifics for the fans.

COD's first priority: Set the film outside any and all World War II theaters of operations. We've seen the best tale of warfare that can be told – it's called Saving Private Ryan, and then later it was called Band of Brothers. Outside of Blackhawk Down, we don't have a definitive 21st Century war film that taps into the tactical, moral and political complications the way the aforementioned did. COD: Modern Warfare could be that film. And we have a few ideas to help make it great.

The makers of Call of Duty pride themselves on delivering a cinematic experience with each game, so no need to reinvent the wheel here.

Characters to feature: Price as the main character, follow his early years, his training a la the first MW game and then find him leading a squad of SAS, aided by a joint operation of U.S. and Russian soldiers. Their mission: Track down and kill Zakhaev, the leader of the Russian Ultra-Nationalist Party, before he gets his hands on a nuke and detonates it over U.S. soil.

For most of the film, Price would be the same age as Pike in the new Trek movie, with him becoming a mentor to Soap. The two's stories would run parallel to each other, with the seasoned vet opposite the soldier in the making.

Key scenes to adapt from the games during this mission: The sequence from COD4 where our soldiers get a lead on Zakhaev's location, somewhere in Eastern Europe, and find themselves knee-deep in terrorists with nothing but camo and a sniper rifle to protect them. The tension rises as our crew sneaks around in absolute silence, save for the sound of throat mics and silenced weapons fire. Bonus points if the filmmakers can pull off the gameplay where our hero has to lay down in a field of grass, unnoticed, as a convoy of tanks and troopers wheels in on either side of him.

As Price and Soap become mirrors of one another, leading up to Price's final duty – sniping Zakhaev with a .50 cal from a great distance – have the second act end with Price missing the final Zakhaev kill shot and incurring the wrath of an inbound gunship.

Price is fatally injured and Soap must take up the mantle, leading to an all-out assault similar to the final battle that concludes COD4. And if the filmmakers are really ballsy, they'll let the nuke go off and set the stage for the D.C. under siege storyline that takes root in MW2.